Near Field Communications (NFC) refers to a technology that allows radio-frequency devices such as mobile phones to establish wireless communications over short distances, typically within a few centimeters. For example, an NFC-enabled mobile phone may read data from other NFC-enabled devices in close proximity, without direct contact. Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) refers to a similar technology that enables wireless data transfer. For example, an RFID reader may read data from an RFID tag attached to an object, e.g., to identify a product in an inventory control system. Electronic toys and games may employ NFC and/or RFID technologies to read data over short distances. For example, a game console may read data from a trading card that contains an NFC tag.
Examples of such systems are found in the “SKYLANDERS” games, as disclosed in US patent applications US20110098092; US20120295699; US20120295700; US20120295703; US20120295704; and US20120295714. Other examples are disclosed in US patent applications US20020052238, US20020077182, US20040152521, US20040214642, US20050143173; US20130231191; US20130249301; U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,666, U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,285, U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,561, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,801, U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,327, U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,762, U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,216, U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,162, U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,637, U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,325, U.S. Pat. No. 7,018,213, U.S. Pat. No. 7,057,492, U.S. Pat. No. 7,081,033, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,602,857; International patent publication WO2006036851; European patent application EP0492569; and Japanese patent application JP07323159. The disclosures of these and all other publications referenced herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes. In the event that any of the incorporated references listed in the previous paragraph define a term or terms in a manner inconsistent with either the disclosure of the present application or with any of the other incorporated references, the term or terms as used therein only control with respect to the patent document in which the term or terms are defined. Stated differently, a patentee of any one of the aforementioned incorporated references listed in the previous paragraph, when acting as his/her own lexicographer, does so only with respect to the reference in which the term or terms are defined. Accordingly, any such defined term or terms do not, in any way, define the same or similar term or terms used in the present application or in any of the other aforementioned or later-mentioned references.